Children: Disabled Children

Lord Touhig: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of children with one or more disability who live in overcrowded accommodation.

Lord Freud: The information is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. We will consider whether it is feasible to produce the statistics requested within the disproportionate cost limit, and if so, will issue them in an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

UK Export Finance

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether UK Export Finance conducted an assessment of the environmental, social and human rights impacts of London Mining Company Ltd's iron ore mine in Sierra Leone before guaranteeing a £4.6 million loan; and whether they will publish any such assessment.

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint: It is The Export Credit Guarantees’ Department (ECGD’s) policy to comply with all International Agreements which apply to the operations of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). This includes the OECD Recommendation on Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Common Approaches), which informs the way in which member ECAs should address the environmental social and human rights (ESHR) impacts of projects they are asked to support. The support provided was under ECGD’s Contract Bond Support Scheme. And the OECD Common Approaches does not require an ESHR impact assessment to be carried out in respect of this category of export transaction.

UK Export Finance

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether UK Export Finance conducted an assessment of the environmental, social and human rights impacts of the supply of intelligence equipment to the government of Indonesia's Ministry of Defence before guaranteeing a £4.2 million loan; and whether they will publish any such assessment.

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint: It is Export Credit Guarantees Department’s (ECGD’s) policy to comply with all International Agreements which apply to the operations of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). This includes the OECD Recommendation on Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Common Approaches), which informs the way in which member ECAs should address the environmental social and human rights (ESHR) impacts of projects they are asked to support. The OECD Common Approaches does not require an ESHR impact assessment to be carried out in respect of this category of export transaction.

UK Export Finance

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an assessment of the environmental, social and human rights impacts of Reliance Industries Ltd will be conducted by UK Export Finance in relation to the Jamnagar petroleum and petrochemical complex in India; and whether any such assessment will be published before committing UK Export Finance support to the project.

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint: It is Export Credit Guarantees Department (ECGD’s) policy to comply with all International Agreements which apply to the operations of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). This includes the OECD Recommendation on Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Common Approaches), which informs the way in which member ECAs should address the environmental social and human rights (ESHR) impacts of projects they are asked to support. A review of the potential ESHR impacts on the Jamnagar Petroleum and Petrochemical complex will be carried out to inform a decision, still to be taken, as to whether or not ECGD should support exports to this project. If support is provided UKEF will publish on its website a notice of support with information about the ESHR impacts and applicable international standards.